Please email the documents to be translated to: mail@verbajuris.de.

I do not need the original documents in order to translate them. A copy or scan by email is sufficient as long as the entire text is clearly readable.

Quotes

As is standard for translators, I need to see the text to be translated before I can give you an exact quote. Every text is different and involves a different amount of work, which makes it difficult to quote an exact price in advance. I also have to determine whether the text falls within my area of expertise and whether I can translate it satisfactorily. For example, I do not translate technical or medical texts.

I will then give you a quote and let you know the delivery time.

File formats

If possible, please send documents as Word files due to ease of editing. I also accept PDF, JPG and other file formats.

Delivery

If your documents are to be certified (beglaubigt), I will send you the signed and stamped translation by post to the address you have given. Postage within Germany is included in the price. Personal collection in the Düsseldorf area is also possible.

Non-certified documents will be sent by email in Word format. 

I am authorised by Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court to certify (‘beglaubigen’) translations of official documents both from German into English and from English into German.

In Germany, for translations of documents to be submitted for official purposes, such as to government bodies or universities, they have to be certified. This means I sign and stamp the translation to certify that it is complete and accurate.

Common documents, the translations of which require certifying, include excerpts from the commercial register, articles of association, annual financial statements, birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as academic certificates and transcripts. This is usually known as ‘Beglaubigung’.

The certifying of translations may only be carried out by a translator who has been approved and authorised by a Higher Regional Court (OLG). These court-authorised or ‘sworn’ translators, as they are also known in some states, are listed in the online database maintained by the justice authorities  which the public can use to find a suitable translator.

Unfortunately the titles in use for court-authorised translators vary from Bundesland to Bundesland, which makes it rather confusing. In North Rhein-Westfalia (NRW), they court-appointed translators are called ‘ermächtigt’, but elsewhere they may be called ‘beeidigt’, ‘vereidigt’ or ‘öffentlich bestellt’. Thankfully, it all refers to the same capacity to certify written translations.

Translations certified by me, or any court-appointed translator, are valid throughout Germany.

The price of a translation varies depending on the combination of the type of text, the difficulty level, the amount of research required and other factors. For this reason I cannot give you a firm quote without having reviewed the text first.

Prices for the translation of legal texts begin at €1,50 per standard line. The standard line consists of 55 keystrokes including spaces and is the typical method of calculating translation prices in Germany. If you prefer, I can give you a word price instead.

In Word you can calculate the number of standard lines in a text by opening the ‘count words’ dialogue box, then taking the number of characters including spaces and dividing it by 55. 

Documents and forms that require a lot of formatting work are charged at a higher rate.

A surcharge is added to urgent jobs that require working on evenings and weekends of between 20%-50%.

Yes. Every translation is proofread by an experienced proofreader before you receive it.

Where I have signed a non-disclosure agreement, I undertake the proofreading myself.

Purpose of the translation and target audience

Contact person

Please make yourself available or nominate a contact person for any questions I may have during translation on issues I need to clarify. Sometimes the photocopy I am sent is so fuzzy that I can’t make out what parts of it say, or  the grammar is unclear or I need more background information to work out the sense. So if I ask questions about the text and the subject, it doesn’t mean I don’t understand. It means I’m paying acute attention.

Budget enough time

High quality translation takes time. Just as you take time when you write a report or draft a contract, I need time to translate it properly. I can manage up to 2,000 words  a day. Please take this into account when planning the timeline for your project. If a text has to be translated in a hurry, surcharges can mount up, and what’s worse, quality can start to suffer. We don’t want that.